Boswell was almost of the same age as Hepburn and possibly knew him from the University at Edinburgh. On October 28, 1762, he went to John Mitchelson's to wait for Hepburn and his wife, Mitchelson's daughter. He wrote in his journal that "I was somewhat hurt to see a young fellow of twenty, possessed of twelve hundred a year, tied down to a woman elder than himself, not pretty and low bred".